2008/06/30

Meanwhile, aviation engineers are taking another route, designing a more environmentally sustainable airplane that may overturn long-held notions of flight engineering.

"I want to get rid of the image of a cylindrical body with wings," said Etnel Straatsma of Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands.

The plane of the future, in Straatsma's vision, might be as wild as a flying saucer. She and other engineers are toying with lighter materials and some are pondering ideas as radical as returning to propeller-driven planes as an eco-friendly alternative to passenger jets.

Straatsma heads the recently-formed CleanEra project, which aims to design an "ultra-eco-friendly plane" that releases 50 percent less carbon dioxide per passenger-mile than current airliners. The project's "greenliner"—depicted in design illustrations as a flying saucer—would also reduce other pollutants and noise, in line with recommendations from the European Aerospace Commission, ACARE.

The challenge is that modern airplanes are already close to maximally optimized, said Alexander de Haan, also from Delft but not involved with CleanEra. He has examined various design modifications and found that they could reduce carbon emissions and noise levels by, at most, 10 to 15 percent.

"These ideas cannot keep up with the 5 percent growth that the [airline] industry continues to have year after year," de Haan said.

Aviation accounts for about 2 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions, but what has many worried is how fast the industry is growing. By 2050, air travel could be 5 percent or more of the total warming affect, according to a 1999 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Although estimates vary, flying in a plane releases the equivalent of about 1 pound of carbon dioxide per mile per passenger, which is about the same as driving a car the same distance.

Constant retooling of aircraft has helped to decrease emissions per passenger by 2 to 2.5 percent per year, said Andreas Hardeman of the industry group International Air Transport Association. But he agreed that the current paradigm may have reached the "end of the line."

"Ever since the Boeing 707 first flew in 1957, airliners ... have changed very little in their basic appearance," Hardeman said. "However, because future improvements to the basic design are getting harder to make, economic and environmental pressures mean that the case for radical change is getting stronger."Radical change could mean introducing novel materials and shapes, or even reviving "old" propulsion systems.

17 commentaires:

Anonyme
a dit…

Hey I know this is off topic but I was wondering if you knew of any widgets I could add to my blog that automatically tweet my newest twitter updates. I've been looking for a plug-in like this for quite some time and was hoping maybe you would have some experience with something like this. Please let me know if you run into anything. I truly enjoy reading your blog and I look forward to your new updates.

We are a group of volunteers and opening a new scheme in our community. Your website provided us with valuable information to work on. You have done an impressive job and our entire community will be grateful to you.

Howdy! I could have sworn I've been to your blog before but after looking at some of the posts I realized it's new to me.Regardless, I'm certainly pleased I discovered it and I'll be book-marking it and checking back regularly!

Howdy would you mind letting me know which web host you're working with? I've loaded your blog in 3 different internet browsers and I must say this blog loads a lot faster then most.Can you recommend a good internet hosting provider at a fair price?Kudos, I appreciate it!

Pretty section of content. I just stumbled upon your blog and in accession capital to assert that I get actually enjoyed account your blog posts.Anyway I'll be subscribing to your feeds and even I achievement you access consistently rapidly.

Hey there I am so delighted I found your weblog, I really found you by accident,while I was searching on Digg for something else, Nonetheless I am here now and would just like to say thanks for a remarkable post and a all round exciting blog (I also love the theme/design), I don’t have time to look over it all at the minute but I have book-marked it and also added your RSS feeds, so when I have time I will be back to read a lot more, Please do keep up the superb work.

With havin so much content and articles do you ever run into any problems of plagorism or copyright violation?My website has a lot of completely unique content I've either created myself or outsourced but it seems a lot of it is popping it up all over the internet without my permission. Do you know any solutions to help stop content from being ripped off? I'd really appreciate it.